Through a chance meeting at a Harvard bar, Will and his friends, Chuckie (Ben Affleck), Morgan (Casey Affleck) and Billy (Cole Hauser) meet Skylar (Minnie Driver), a charming British beauty who is instantly enchanted with Will. The pair starts dating, but Will keeps his blue-collar life a secret from Skylar because of insecurities about his social level. As the pressures mount from Skylar wanting more and Prof. Lambeau wanting Will to reach his potential through job offers the Professor lines up, Will soon spirals downward, cutting himself off from those who love him and retreating into his Southie comfort zone. Will he take the lessons learned from Sean or throw his future away because he is afraid to take a chance?
Good Will Hunting is one of those movies with iconic memorable lines like, "How ya like them apples?" Lines you'll remember, even if you don't remember a lot about the film itself. I hadn't seen Good Will Hunting since it came out 15 years ago and I had forgotten a lot of the nuances of the film, so it was a treat to watch it all over again and see Ben Affleck and Matt Damon so young. I even spotted a young Vic Sahay (Chuck) in the halls of MIT and he looks exactly the same. The acting is excellent, it's a great story and the Elliott Smith/Danny Elfman soundtrack is just perfect, so haunting. It looks especially crisp and vivid on Blu-ray and although the vistas of South Boston are often not all that much to look at, every little detail pops.
Most of the special features are the same ones that were included on the Blu-ray release last year, with the exception of two featurettes – Matt Damon Remembers Good Will Hunting and The Era of Good Will Hunting. Matt Damon Remembers is fun but short, whereas The Era of Good Will Hunting clocks in at a little over an hour and will visit with Damon and Affleck, as well as Gus Van Sant, Robin Williams, Co-Producers Chris Moore and Kevin Smith, talking about everything from how they first came up with the script all the way to bringing it to life on the big screen. This will be the big draw for fans. I wish Minnie Driver, Stellan Skarsgard and Casey Affleck had joined in, but they were only mentioned. In addition are the previously released special features which include commentary with Gus Van Sant, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, a nice handful of deleted scenes with commentary, a short production featurette, Elliott Smith's "Miss Misery" music video, the trailer, some behind the scenes footage and an Academy Award picture montage. Although I am not typically a big fan of commentary, it was a joy to listen to these three discuss a film that is so clearly close to their hearts.
If you already have Good Will Hunting in your collection on Blu-ray, I’m not sure that the additional two featurettes will be a big enough draw to re-purchase the film, but as far as Blu-rays go, it's pretty cheap at under $12. I really enjoyed the new featurettes and the transfer is beautiful, so if you haven't yet added this fantastic film to your collection, now is the time.
